blog

I’m a big proponent of putting my own soundtrack to my gaming experiences.

However, I do pick and choose when it is appropriate to do so.  Does the game rely on voice acting? Gotta keep the original sound on.

Then there are games with really good soundtracks, or just plain nostalgic ones (Mario, Zelda, etc.). You can’t deny the impact that music has on the overall gameplay.

For the most part, though, game music really doesn’t do it for me. Maybe I’m a snob. Maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe I’m just an idiot.

When it comes to background music I am picky. I can’t just put on anything. First off, as with playing music while reading, I try to avoid stuff with vocals. It just gets distracting to me – my ADD-ridden brain will immediately start thinking about eggs or dinosaurs or why Jimmy Fallon is such a douchebag. And then I’m not playing the game, I’m just off in my thought world and I’ve been running my character into a wall for the past 5 minutes.

For this reason, I’ve whittled my musical collection down to a much smaller chunk that is acceptable for gaming. I figured I’d share a few of my favorites, and maybe some of you can recommend your own.

Loscil –

Pure ambient bliss. Sometimes it may feel as if you are listening to nothing at all, and when you are playing a relaxing game of puzzle quest or maybe diving in Endless Ocean, this can put you into a near meditative state. I highly recommend the album “Submers” as every song sounds like it was recorded inside of a submarine (also, all the song titles are submarines).

Clinic –

First off, I love these guys for so many reasons. This totally goes against my “no vocals” clause, but for good reason… mostly because the words are hard to make out half of the time. Also, their music has a sort of creepiness to it that can’t be explained. While playing through Diablo 2 again a few months back, I put Clinic on and realized that they fit really nicely together. It has a nice, atmospheric sound that also keeps you energized.

Explosions in the Sky –

Simply epic. These guys got their name out there by composing the soundtrack for “Friday Night Lights”, and the movie greatly benefited. Strongly cinematic, you could probably listen to this while playing the original Super Mario and transform the experience into something akin to an out of body experience or eating a really good sandwich.

That’s just my top choices of the moment. Plenty more to put out there, but I’d like to get some recommendations from ya’ll. Let us discuss!

Share this article: